19th.—Colonel Bradley Johnson has been with us for some days. He is nephew to Bishop J., and as bright and agreeable in private as he is bold and dashing in the field. Our little cottage has many pleasant visitors, and I think we are as cheerful a family circle as the Confederacy can boast. We are very much occupied by our Sunday-schools—white in the morning, and coloured in the afternoon. In the week we are often busy, like the “cotter’s” wife, in making “auld claes look amaist as weel as new.” “New claes” are not attainable at present high prices ; we are therefore likely to become very ingenious in fixing up “auld anes.” My friend who lately arrived from Washington looked on very wonderingly when she saw us all ready for church. “Why, how genteel you look!” at last broke from her; “I had no idea of it. We all thought of you as suffering in every respect.” I told her that the Southern women were as ingenious as the men were brave; and while we cared little for dress during such anxious times, yet when our husbands and sons returned from the field we preferred that their homes should be made attractive, and that they should not be pained by the indifferent appearance of their wives, sisters, and mothers. She was still more surprised by the neatly fitting, prettily made dresses of Southern manufacture. “Are they of Virginia cloth?” she asked. No, poor old Virginia has no time or opportunity for improving her manufactures, while almost her whole surface is scarred and furrowed by armies; but Georgia and North Carolina are doing much towards clothing the first ladies in the land. Sister M. has just improved my wardrobe by sending me a black alpaca dress, bought from a Potomac blockade-runner. We, ever and anon, are assisted in that way: sometimes a pound of tea, sometimes a pair of gloves, is snugged away in a friendly pocket, and after many dangers reaches us, and meets a hearty welcome; and what is more important still, medicine is brought in the same way, having escaped the eagle eyes of Federal watchers. A lady in Richmond said laughingly to a friend who was about to make an effort to go to Baltimore, “Bring me a pound of tea and a hoop-skirt;” and after a very short absence he appeared before her, with the tea in one hand and the skirt in the other. It is pleasant to see how cheerfully the girls fall into habits of economy, and occupy themselves in a way of which we never dreamed before.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Medium: 1 photograph : ambrotype, hand-colored ; 5.0 x 3.7 cm (brooch)
Gift; Tom Liljenquist; 2012;
Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs; Ambrotype/Tintype photograph filing series; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Record page for image is here.
Civil War Portrait 018
by John Beauchamp Jones
JANUARY 19TH.—We have rumors of fighting this morning on the Rappahannock; perhaps the enemy is making another advance upon Richmond.
There was a grand funeral to-day,—Gen. D. R. Jones’s; he died of heart disease.
Gen. Bragg dispatches that Brig.-Gen. Wheeler, with his cavalry, got in the rear of Rosecrans a few days ago, and burned a railroad bridge. He then penetrated to the Cumberland River, and destroyed three large transports and bonded a fourth, which took off his paroled prisoners. After this he captured and destroyed a gun-boat and its armament sent in quest of him.
We have taken Springfield, Missouri.
Rosecrans sends our officers, taken at Murfreesborough, to Alton, Ill., to retaliate on us for the doom pronounced in our President’s proclamation, and one of his generals has given notice that if we burn a railroad bridge (in our own country) all private property within a mile of it shall be destroyed. The black flag next. We have no news from North Carolina.
Mr. Caperton was elected C. S. Senator by the Virginia Legislature on Saturday, in place of Mr. Preston, deceased.
An intercepted letter from a Mr. Sloane, Charlotte, N. C., to A. T. Stewart & Co., New York, was laid before the Secretary of War yesterday. He urged the New York merchant, who has contributed funds for our subjugation, to send merchandise to the South, now destitute, and he would act as salesman. The Secretary indorsed “conscript him,” and yet the Assistant Secretary has given instructions to Col. Godwin, in the border counties, to wink at the smugglers. This is consistency! And the Assistant Secretary writes “by order of the Secretary of War!”
January 19.—President Lincoln addressed a letter to the workingmen of Manchester, England, acknowledging the receipt of an address and resolutions adopted by them at a meeting held at Manchester on the 31st of December, 1862. In closing his letter the President said: “I do not doubt that the sentiments you have expressed will be sustained by your great nation; and, on the other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite admiration, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friendship among the American people. I hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that, whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exist between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual.”—(Doc. 119.)
—The Third battalion of the Fifth Pennsylvania cavalry, commanded by Major Wm. G. McCandless, made a reconnoissance in the direction of Barnesville, Va., thoroughly scouting all the roads branching from the Williamsburgh and Richmond turnpike. Two companies which remained on the turnpike, under the command of Captain Cameron, having been sent forward as an advance-guard, Lieutenant H. A. Vezin, with eighteen men, detained twelve as a reserve, and ordered Sergeant Anderson, with six men, to march two hundred yards in advance of the column, to act as videttes, and if attacked by a superior force, to fall back on the column. Thus the squadron marched to within one mile of “Burnt Ordinary,” when a party of seventy or eighty mounted rebels appeared, drawn up in line across the Richmond road. Sergeant Anderson ordered his men to fall back, but immediately in his rear appeared some twenty rebels drawn up in line, cutting off the Sergeant and his party, and capturing the whole advance. Seeing his critical position, he put spurs to his horse and succeeded in cutting his way back to Lieutenant Vezin and his reserve, giving that officer the alarm, who immediately ordered his twelve men to draw sabre, charge and give the rebels the cold steel. Here was daring with scarce a parallel in the war. One Lieutenant, one sergeant, and twelve men charging nearly a hundred rebels drawn up in line of battle. Dashing forward, they broke the rebel ranks, and captured all their companions but one, together with four rebels and five horses fully equipped.
—This afternoon, in lat. 23° 50′, long. 84° 17′, tho brig Estelle was captured and burned by the rebel privateer Oreto (Florida) under the command of Captain J. N. Maffit.—The army of the Potomae, under the command of General Burnside, broke camp and began to move down to the fords on the Rappahannock, for the purpose of crossing to the south bank of that river, and attacking the rebel army under General Lee.— (Doc. 110.)
—A debate took place in the rebel House of Representatives on President Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation, and the proposition of Jefferson Davis to execute Federal officers in retaliation. On this occasion Mr. Foote of Mississippi, said he preferred, in lieu of retaliatory measures, as suggested by the resolutions, that an attempt should be made to stop the shedding of blood by a movement to bring about peace. It would strengthen the friends of peace at the North, and perhaps have the effect of producing a state of things so much desired, notwithstanding the opposition of the abolition party. He signified his intention to offer a resolution hereafter—not for the purpose of yielding one inch of ground to the North, but to throw the entire responsibility upon the Federal government, if these scenes of blood were to continue. Mr. Dargan, of Alabama, took the ground that powers at war must retaliate. The resolutions contemplated the turning over of captured officers to the State governments and to let them be punished according to their laws. He did not think that was correct, but suggested that the government should take the responsibility itself. Mr. Lyons, of Virginia, said the government had no power to turn captured officers over to the States. Nor was there any necessity for the resolutions, since the (rebel) President said in his message that he would do it, unless prevented by Congress. He favored the passage of a law prohibiting such a course, and to repose the power of retaliation entirely in the hands of the government. When an officer was captured, if there should be any cause for retaliation, we might retaliate upon him; if not, we were bound to exchange him. He could not, by any law of nations, when captured by one government, be turned over to another government for trial. He would prefer that any officer captured in any State after the promulgation of the emancipation proclamation should be instantly hanged, and not subject him to the uncertainties of a trial by jury.— Mr. Kenner, of Louisiana, moved that the House go into secret session to receive the report on this subject of the Committee of Ways and Means. The motion was agreed to, and the House went into secret session.
Buntyn Station, Monday, Jan. 19. Rainy and disagreeable. Logan’s Division passed on the R. R. going towards Memphis. Rec’d three letters, four newspapers.
